Having no official matches under the belt since September 2016, Serena Williams came up in Australia after a quick detour in Auckland. Back there, she failed to produce some real damage and eventually suffered an early exit. It was a fast and rather inconclusive warm-up for the first Grand Slam of the year. A runner-up last year when she was defeated by Angelique Kerber in a 3 sets final, Serena seems to have left some dangerous steam in her pocket.
The American leads the bottom half of the draw and some fierce opposition is still in place. So far, Serena did well winning the first 2 encounters without dropping a single set.
Serena showed some crushing force in the first 2 matches
In the opening match in Melbourne, Williams had to deal with Belinda Bencic, a 19-years-old with a huge potential who is currently playing below what she delivered back in 2015. Despite this fact, Williams seized the game in her favour winning it in the minimum of sets 6-4 6-3. The story repeated itself in the 2nd round having the world no. 2 in charge. Her opponent, namely Lucie Safarova, the French Open runner-up back in 2015, failed in doing any significant impact as Serena took the win in straight sets 6-3 6-4.
For the 2nd seed, it`ll follow a confrontation with a fellow compatriot, namely Nicole Gibbs ranked 92th in the WTA circuit.
It`ll be only the 2nd meeting between these two Americans. Their only clash so far took place back in 2012 on the hardcourt in Stanford having Serena as a winner in straight sets 6-2 6-1.
Serena had great success in Melbourne throughout her career
At the Australian Open, the 35-years-old Tennis star tasted a great amount of success having won the women`s singles contest 6 times back in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2015.
Last year she made it to the final act but failed to defend her 2015 title in front of a fully determined Kerber.
This year, with Kerber as the top-seeded player, the history might repeat itself as they could play against each other only if both of them reaches the final act. Despite a sloppy start with early exits in Brisbane and Sydney, Kerber seems to regain her pace in Australia.
